Sparrowly Group

Sparrowly Group Problem Solvers, Opportunity Creators We believe that organisations are powerhouses for creating change and creating a better future for the world.

So if organisations are thriving, so too will communities, industries, economies, and individuals. That’s why our vision isn’t about us. It’s about the work we do as management consultants having a far-reaching impact – impact that’s immediate as well as for the future. We solve problems and create opportunities for organisations and people, so they can thrive. And we support them to become robust

and resilient, and thrive through change. As for our day-to-day, our consultancy work takes many forms. We advise, we strategise and we co-create. The projects we work on are varied and complex. And we like it that way – we prefer to be the team behind the scenes that helps organisations and people make an impact. Because the best growth happens when people are enriched with knowledge, skills and aptitude for continuous improvement. Where innovation is built into the process. When decisions are made on evidence and data. And when success positively influences the people in the organisation, the community and environment around it. We empower teams and people with the strategic direction and tools they need to help them make a positive impact. We make connections between people and concepts to improve and innovate. Our team is cross disciplinary – which means our management consultants solve problems and create opportunities in ways that are lateral, evidence driven and customer centric.

Beth Burns joined an industry panel at Western Sydney University this week, speaking with students in the Tourism, Event...
03/09/2026

Beth Burns joined an industry panel at Western Sydney University this week, speaking with students in the Tourism, Events and Technology class about the technologies that have reshaped our industry.
Beth sat in that same class as a student a few years ago, when the disruption case studies were Uber and Airbnb. This time the conversation landed almost entirely on AI.

Three very different vantage points on the panel: Michael Betteridge, who built his first travel website in 1998 and now works in cruise and sits on the board of Destination Country and Outback NSW, Claire Baxter of Rome2Rio, who leads a global remote team at a business that has been web based since 2011, and Beth, a few years into her professional career.

A few insights that stayed with us:
- The winners are not only the obvious ones - the platforms, the chip makers and the data centre owners are the first names everyone reaches for, but the benefit we see on the ground looks different. It is the owner operator working six days a week who goes home and does the books after dinner, and who can now get a grant or award submission finished in an evening.

- Sovereignty and governance come before adoption - data sovereignty, and cultural sovereignty for First Nations communities, cannot be ceded to a machine by default. Businesses need to decide deliberately how much control they hand over.

-The second page has disappeared - search once gave you pages of options, and an AI itinerary gives you two or three. The operator next door is just as good, but they are not in the answer.

- Technology divides are physical, not just digital - one electric vehicle charging station every 100 kilometres does not serve the 45% of New South Wales that sits west of the Great Dividing Range.

The advice to students was consistent across all three panellists. Do your own thinking first, then bring AI in.
Curiosity, creativity and critical thinking are the parts it cannot do for you.

Thank you to Thilakshi Mallawa Arachchi and Dr Donna James at Western Sydney University for the invitation, and to the students for questions that were sharper than most boardrooms manage.
ID 1: Beth sitting in front of a laptop in a meeting room with awards atop a cabinet.
ID 2: Screenshot of students and panel attendees over Zoom.

03/09/2026

Five days. Four towns. Home to fewer than 1,000 people.

Jackie and Beth Burns spent last week in Quilpie Shire, working with Quilpie Shire Council on its Economic Development Plan and Destination Management Plan.

Adavale, Eromanga, Quilpie and Toompine. Conversations in pubs, cafes and on the main street, with business owners, residents, Council staff and travellers passing through.

You can write a plan from a desk. You cannot test one from there.

What stood out most was how much this community looks out for itself. People back each other, and so do the businesses.

Thank you to everyone across the Shire who stopped and talked with us, and to the team at Quilpie Shire Council.

ID: A video of Sparrowly Group in Quilpie Shire in south west Queensland. Jackie speaks to camera in bushland, followed by footage of emus, sunsets over town, red dirt and wildflowers, the Toompine South Western Hotel, a community session in a hall, farmstay accommodation, the Eromanga Natural History Museum and dinosaur fossils on display, and a dirt road filmed from a vehicle. Beth closes to camera. Captions appear on screen throughout.

A massive congratulations to our friends Have Wheelchair Will Travel!!
02/09/2026

A massive congratulations to our friends Have Wheelchair Will Travel!!

A big congratulations to our friends at AccessibleOz on this incredible achievement!!!
02/09/2026

A big congratulations to our friends at AccessibleOz on this incredible achievement!!!

September is shaping up to be another great month of connection and being in amongst it for the Sparrowly Group team, wi...
02/09/2026

September is shaping up to be another great month of connection and being in amongst it for the Sparrowly Group team, with workshops, panels and conversations taking us across Western Sydney, the Mid North Coast NSW and nationally, online. This month you’ll find us:

🎤 Beth Burns at Western Sydney University (WSU) speaking on Technology Adoption in Tourism and Events as part of the Industry Expert Panel.
🎓 Jackie Hicks at Western Sydney University as a panellist for the WSU Social Sciences Alumni Event.
🚗 Giovanna Lever, ACEcD, GAICD across Coffs Harbour, Nambucca and Bellingen delivering the first of our Build Better Business Regional Training Roadshow events for small businesses across Australia, with workshops focused on Building Business Resilience and Welcoming All Customers.
💻 Giovanna online later in the month for another Build Better Business session focused on Welcoming All Customers for business owners across the country.

It is a good snapshot of the breadth of work we get to do, from tourism and technology to business capability, resilience and accessibility and we are looking forward to plenty of conversations with businesses, industry and communities along the way.

As for Anakin, Sparrowly Group’s unofficial Chief Morale Officer? Despite making a strong case for inclusion in the team photos, he has not yet been approved for the travel budget. 🐶

Links to attend the business workshops in comments.

ID: Sparrowly Group team’s September events and travel schedule flyer with details as listed above and images of Beth, Jackie and Giovanna all with Anakin, Sparrowly Group's Chief Morale Officer.

City of Coffs Harbour Nambucca Valley Council Bellingen Shire Council

Free online workshop for business owners to improve their accessibility 🤝Sparrowly Group is hosting a free online Welcom...
01/09/2026

Free online workshop for business owners to improve their accessibility 🤝

Sparrowly Group is hosting a free online Welcoming All Customers workshop, helping local tourism and hospitality businesses create experiences that welcome every visitor, including people with disability.

The workshop will explore:
- what makes an experience stand out, from understanding ideal customers to polishing a product
- practical guidance on access and inclusion, covering the different types of disability, common pitfalls to avoid, and simple communication and physical assessment tools
- quick wins you can put in place immediately.

📅 Wednesday 16 September, 2026
🕙 11 am - 1 pm AEST
📍Via Google Meet.

Register your interest using this link: https://wkf.ms/4fBzEQR

We recently worked with the Queensland Tourism Industry Council - QTIC on a Strategic Workforce Review looking at how it...
27/08/2026

We recently worked with the Queensland Tourism Industry Council - QTIC on a Strategic Workforce Review looking at how its workforce and operating model can support the organisation’s strategic direction and the changing needs of Queensland’s tourism industry.

The project started with an in-depth diagnostic and state-of-play review, before moving into workforce design and a practical implementation framework.
Importantly, this wasn’t workforce planning undertaken in isolation. The work was grounded in QTIC’s Strategic Plan and Advocacy Plan while also looking outward to Destination 2045 and the opportunities and expectations it creates for QTIC as Queensland’s peak tourism industry body.

That meant considering how QTIC’s structure, capability and ways of working could better support its strategic and advocacy priorities - from industry representation and government engagement to membership, workforce development, operator capability and program delivery.

From this foundation, we developed two workforce design scenarios and an implementation framework focused on alignment, clarity and optimisation rather than simply increasing headcount.

The work also explored how QTIC can strengthen its advocacy and corporate affairs capability, create clearer leadership and accountability, maintain a stable core workforce while scaling around funded programs, and position itself to pursue and deliver opportunities arising through Destination 2045.

It’s a good example of the breadth of work we undertake at Sparrowly Group - bringing together strategy, workforce and organisational design, tourism and visitor economy, economic development and implementation planning.

As Natassia Wheeler reflected in her feedback, that broader multisector perspective can be particularly valuable in strategic work, helping organisations look beyond their immediate operating environment, see the bigger picture and consider possibilities that may not otherwise have been on the table.
Thank you Natassia and the QTIC team for the opportunity to work alongside you on this important next phase.

We’re proud to see the Outback Queensland Destination Management Plan 2030 officially launched - a plan developed by Spa...
27/08/2026

We’re proud to see the Outback Queensland Destination Management Plan 2030 officially launched - a plan developed by Sparrowly Group in close collaboration with the Outback Queensland Tourism Association (OQTA), industry, local governments and regional partners.

A critical part of our work was ensuring the DMP directly responds to the Queensland Government’s Destination 2045: Delivering Queensland’s Tourism Future and translates its statewide ambitions into priorities that make sense for Outback Queensland.

Because the Outback is different.

Covering almost 68% of Queensland, across five diverse sub-regions and 19 local government areas, its opportunities and challenges are shaped by extraordinary distances, small and dispersed communities, transport and digital connectivity, workforce capacity, seasonality and the need to protect the landscapes, culture and communities that make the region distinctive.

The DMP takes the direction established through Destination 2045 and considers what delivery looks like through an Outback Queensland lens - ensuring the region is positioned to contribute to Queensland’s long-term tourism ambitions while responding to its own needs, strengths and opportunities.

It establishes an ambition for Outback Queensland to become the number one destination of choice for Australian Outback experiences and holidays, underpinned by six strategic priorities:
- Ecotourism - protecting what makes the Outback unique while unlocking sustainable growth
- Events - using events to drive visitation, dispersal and community benefit
- Connectivity - making the Outback easier, safer and more accessible
- Experiences - growing iconic, authentic and bookable experiences
- Brand - building a confident, unified and distinctive Outback identity
- Industry - strengthening capability, capacity and collaboration

Together, these priorities support the broader direction of Destination 2045, while providing a practical roadmap for what needs to happen on the ground across Outback Queensland through to 2030.

The plan builds on the region’s established strengths in history and heritage, palaeotourism, natural landscapes, events and drive tourism, while identifying opportunities in First Nations tourism, agritourism, wellness, food and beverage and real dark sky tourism.

Importantly, this isn’t a plan for one organisation. Its development was shaped by tourism operators, communities, councils, Traditional Owners, industry and regional partners from across the Outback.

For Sparrowly Group, our role was to work alongside OQTA and its partners to bring those perspectives together, test them against the direction set by Destination 2045 and develop a clear, actionable roadmap for the region.

https://www.flipsnack.com/7BAA9D5EFB5/bc982f8a-9d0e-40ce-bcd3-ac5982058116

Experience Outback Queensland, Australia

ID: Outback Queensland Tourism Association Chair Cr Shaun ‘Zoro’ Radnedge, Queensland Minister for the Environment and Tourism and Minister for Science and Innovation the Hon Andrew Powell MP, and OQTA CEO Denise Brown launch the Outback Queensland Destination Management Plan 2030.

One of the challenges we regularly encounter in economic development and the visitor economy is measurement. Specificall...
26/08/2026

One of the challenges we regularly encounter in economic development and the visitor economy is measurement. Specifically, how do you measure the value of something that doesn't fit neatly within a single industry classification?
A new methodology commissioned by Creative Tasmania - Tasmanian Government provides a useful example.
Historically, Tasmania's economic measurement of arts and culture captured a direct contribution of around $176.3 million. The new framework broadens the lens to recognise three interconnected components:
- Arts and recreation - $176.3 million
- Cultural tourism - $434.7 million
- Cultural education - at least $7.9 million
Together, these represent an estimated $618.8 million in direct contribution to Tasmania's Gross State Product, increasing to more than $1 billion when indirect contributions are included. Importantly, the report is clear that this isn't sudden economic growth. It is a change in what we are measuring and therefore what we can see.
That distinction really resonates with the work we do at Sparrowly Group.
Across our work in economic development, tourism and the visitor economy, agritourism, regional development and workforce planning, we are often working in exactly these intersections.
A farm might be classified as agriculture, but also operate visitor experiences, accommodation or events.
An artist might work within tourism, education or local government rather than an organisation classified within the creative industries.
A festival might sit within arts and culture, while generating demand for accommodation, hospitality, transport and retail.
And a visitor experience might have economic value, but also contribute to liveability, community identity, skills, social connection and place.
If we only analyse sectors through traditional industry silos, we risk significantly underestimating both their economic contribution and their strategic importance.
The workforce analysis in this report reinforces the point. Using the Creative Trident approach, Tasmania's creative sector is estimated to employ 13,500-14,200 people, yet fewer than one-third are captured within traditional creative industry classifications. Many are embedded across tourism, education, government, health and other industries.
This is why good economic and destination development work requires more than pulling an ABS dataset and reporting what it says.
It requires understanding industry ecosystems, supply chains, workforce, visitor expenditure, cross-sector relationships and the way value actually moves through a place.
And sometimes the biggest insight isn't that an economy has changed.
It's that we've changed the way we look at it.
A really interesting framework from Creative Tasmania for anyone working across economic development, tourism, arts and culture or regional development. Read on:
https://www.arts.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/638009/Measuring-the-Economic-Contribution-of-Arts-and-Culture-to-the-Tasmanian-Economy.pdf

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Haberfield, NSW
2040

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